hi-fi?

No offense to whomever disagrees, but what's with all this nonsense about "hi-fi" tone? On my setup, I can get a great Seinfeld sound, but it seems really, really dorky. I find myself often using just the neck pickup, with the hi's turned down, and the mids on my amp cranked. Even when I'm doing jazzy slappety stuff. Someone fill me in on why everyone seeks high-frequencies so much???

Originally posted by phunky345 No offense to whomever disagrees, but what's with all this nonsense about "hi-fi" tone? On my setup, I can get a great Seinfeld sound, but it seems really, really dorky. I find myself often using just the neck pickup, with the hi's turned down, and the mids on my amp cranked. Even when I'm doing jazzy slappety stuff. Someone fill me in on why everyone seeks high-frequencies so much???

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What you call hi-fi...is that what you call high-frequencies? I'm not sure what you mean by hi-fi.

What I generally think of when I think of hi-fi, though, is a remarkably clean, "true" sound, and one that usually comes from an amp, not a bass. It is the amp that "accurately" reproduces the sound of the bass, uncluttered and uncolored.

Hi-Fi is a term from home stereo jargon and it stands for "High Fidelity" which means the original signal from the input doesn't get coloured by the pre, power and speakers but rather gets unchanged.

while most guitar players prefer the 'coloured' sound of tubes (some jazzers and acoustic players don't) bassist are less fond of tube driven amps and sometimes prefer solid state amps for the pure uncoloured sound.

lots of people think that Hi-Fi means modern compressed and processed sound like the sound on sienfeld (I too made that mistake) but it actually has nothing to do with that.

Originally posted by air_leech Hi-Fi is a term from home stereo jargon and it stands for "High Fidelity" which means the original signal from the input doesn't get coloured by the pre, power and speakers but rather gets unchanged.

while most guitar players prefer the 'coloured' sound of tubes (some jazzers and acoustic players don't) bassist are less fond of tube driven amps and sometimes prefer solid state amps for the pure uncoloured sound.

lots of people think that Hi-Fi means modern compressed and processed sound like the sound on sienfeld (I too made that mistake) but it actually has nothing to do with that.

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Sounds like you and I are in agreement on this subject...although Aguilar's line is largely tube and can be considered to be quite hi-fi...there's a fine line there.

Hmm. This is all really nice to know! I'm gonna tell everyone I know about the Seinfeld thing. It just seems like lots of the bassists who are really into what they do like that pingy sound, which isn't very bassy at all. I actually really like a distortion sound, because it is...cool...or something. I gotta go.

Tube amps can certainly be as hifi (or even more hifi, because of less components in the signal path) as SS amps when operated within their linear ranges. In fact I'll challenge ANYONE to tell the difference between a tube power amp and an SS power amp in a double blind test, when both amps are operated within their linear ranges. Like some of the guys have already said: Hifi basically means "an accurate reproduction of the input signal."

Originally posted by Luis Fabara Seinfield Sound??
Thats played on Keyboards... not bass.

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yep... but with the right bass guitar rig and the right player, that character of tone can be emulated.... wouldn't you say?

when a bloke walks into guitar center and selects a pedulla thunderbass with all the good wood, & bartolini magic, sets the balancer to middle, & tone controls flat...

then he plugs the thing into a hybrid head (in this case a hi end head with tube pre, ss power) and plugs that into a hi end cab and sets all eq flat...

you get your basic hi-fi sound IMO. no, this isn't the best sound for everyone and no, you don't need to spend $5000 to get it. but if you want to buy it, or to hear it, this recipe will be pretty dang close

yep... but with the right bass guitar rig and the right player, that character of tone can be emulated.... wouldn't you say?

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Perhaps, but I wouldn't believe it until I heard it AND saw it with my own ears and eyes. It would take a ton of signal processing to get that sound out of a bass. The attack, for one thing, is not natural sounding, but definitely helps give that characteristic "snap" to the "Seinfeld sound."

Originally posted by RAM Perhaps, but I wouldn't believe it until I heard it AND saw it with my own ears and eyes. It would take a ton of signal processing to get that sound out of a bass. The attack, for one thing, is not natural sounding, but definitely helps give that characteristic "snap" to the "Seinfeld sound."

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yep... when people have a hard time believing that it's actually a keyboard (as some do), all i can say is "notice how it has no 'human' factor... it's too precise and doesn't really groove "

yep... when people have a hard time believing that it's actually a keyboard (as some do), all i can say is "notice how it has no 'human' factor... it's too precise and doesn't really groove

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"Yup!

In fact, it sounds so processed, I can't see how someone could possibly recreate that tone. It'd be nearly impossible to duplicate the attack on a single note, let alone duplicating it on a series of eighth notes

I just downloaded it from Audiogalaxy to see what the fuss it all about.

I wonder how you can mistake it for bass, it sounds like those cheap 80s/90s keyboard slap bass presets. The other sounds aren't that refined either.
You definitely can reproduce the line on a bass, it would sound much better.

Originally posted by JMX I just downloaded it from Audiogalaxy to see what the fuss it all about.

I wonder how you can mistake it for bass, it sounds like those cheap 80s/90s keyboard slap bass presets. The other sounds aren't that refined either.

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I agree - I can't believe that anyone who is a bass player would mistake that for bass guitar and until I came on TalkBass I had never heard anybody say that.

But there have been loads of threads saying this recently and it just re-inforces my opinion that loads of the "members" here are just wannabees - kids who are more used to the internet rather than having any idea about bass playing as such.

I agree with those who have said that "Hi Fi" is faithfully reproducing the sound of your bass, rather than colouring it - but that doesn't mean you have to play slap/pop or emphasise the higher frequencies. I like the way my bass sounds direct into a recording desk - I paid a lot of money for a bass that has the tone I like and I want gear that gets exactly that sound and not just some approximation that could be any old bass.

So EA cabs have a HiFi approach in that they use a variety of drivers and tweeters - my VL208 has 8s, 5¼s as well as a tweeter - in much the same way as HiFi speakers do.

I agree - I can't believe that anyone who is a bass player would mistake that for bass guitar and until I came on TalkBass I had never heard anybody say that.

But there have been loads of threads saying this recently and it just re-inforces my opinion that loads of the "members" here are just wannabees - kids who are more used to the internet rather than having any idea about bass playing as such.

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well, before I read an interview with John Wolf (hope I'm not wrong here) I tought it was a real bass guitar, also the behind the scenes shown a "recorded in front of live audiance" episode with real people playing the theme.

anyway, I think your above statement is quite patronizing, if you feel the forum is filled with kids who are just wanabees than you can do one of two things:

1. go and find yourself a forum with real bassists who are good enough to distinguish the sienfeld theme from a real bass guitar.

or

2. help the newbies and wannabees understand their mistake by sharing your great knowldege with everyone and maybe you could learn how to communicate with people while you are doing so.